Paul McCartney is Dead
Why did the Beatles keep Paul’s death a secret?
Conspirators! (& Beatlemaniacs!)
I hate to break it to you, but everyone’s favorite Beatle has been dead for over 50 years. Don’t believe me? Let’s seal up the doors in the yellow sub and take a little dive.
I am the Walrus
Here’s how this theory goes:
On November 9th, 1966, Paul & the gang got into a fight. Upset & unfocused, Paul drove down the M1, got into an accident, and was decapitated.
McCartney was no stranger to vehicular mishaps. His Mini Cooper was once totaled, and he was banged up in a moped accident in 1965.
For reasons to be discussed later, the Band and their team kept it all quiet, found a lookalike named Billy Shears and continued business as usual. But the guilt of the secret took a toll, and, like criminals who leave clues wanting to get caught, the band started leaving hints in all of their albums:
Spin the White Album backwards on Revolution 9, and you’ll hear the words “turn me on, dead man.”
At the end of Strawberry Fields, John says, “I buried Paul.”
When Abbey Road was released, the cover showed Paul barefoot, out of step with the others, and holding a cig in his right hand (the real Paul was a lefty.)
And the one that got me: “Walrus” is a symbol for death in Scandinavia. John Lennon blamed himself for Paul’s death.
You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello
Now let’s say Paul actually died- why keep it all a big secret?
Some context is important for this argument:
In a pretty tumultuous time (Vietnam, JFK’s assassination, the credibility gap of Lyndon Johnson’s presidency, etc.), this was a climate where citizens were regularly faced with conspiracy theories.
The Nibbles team narrowed the ‘why’ down to 3 possible reasons.
The grim answer? Self interest. Could the band have gone on without Paul? Maybe. Would they have had the same kind of success? Doubtful. (Remember this was just after Revolver so some of their greatest hits were still to come.)
The capitalist answer? Money. The Beatles were already known for backmasking, and now their entire fanbase was scouring the records forwards and backwards for clues.
The Lennon answer? Love, man. At (one of) the Beatles’ peaks, could millions of fans have taken the shock? (For reference, when Lennon was killed, some people committed suicide.) The band and their team decided the world was bad enough as it was, it needed music, it needed hope... it needed Paul to be alive.
So Let it out and Let it in.
John Lennon called one of the Detroit radio stations that had been feeding this rumor and said: “It’s the most stupid rumor I’ve ever heard.” He also denied all coded messages in their music. (“I don’t know what Beatles records sound like backwards; I never play them backwards.”)
Eventually, someone had to do some digging. LIFE magazine sent reports to go find Paul on his farm, where he finally agreed to an interview and photos to stop the madness. In their cover story “Paul McCartney is Still With Us,” it featured photos of Paul, his wife, and their two kids. The magazine was scooped up by many, some to read the story, and others to wonder, wait “were his ears always like that?”
In 1974, Paul recounts the stories of his “death”:
“Someone from the office rang me up and said, ‘Look, Paul, you’re dead.’ And I said, ‘Oh, I don’t agree with that.’”
So what do you think?
Read on for more:
How far does the rabbit hole go?
Coverage from Rolling Stone.
And Time Magazine.
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As always, stay ‘spicious.
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